


no competition

by mycanonnevercame



Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Crack, F/M, Jealousy, please forgive me writing angsty crack is my quarantine coping mechanism of choice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:14:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25904164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mycanonnevercame/pseuds/mycanonnevercame
Summary: Karen and Curt start dating, and Frank tries to be happy for them. He really does.
Relationships: Frank Castle/Karen Page
Comments: 17
Kudos: 51





	no competition

By the time he realizes what’s happening, it’s too late.

Curt says Frank’s social life is pathetic, so Frank makes an effort. He invites Curt and Karen over to watch the hockey game. It’s a big deal, at least to him, because these are his two closest friends, and they’re meeting for the first time, and he’s a little nervous about having them in the same room. It makes him feel vulnerable. He worries that once they have the chance to compare notes, they’ll both realize what a piece of shit he is and finally give up on him. He knows he’s being stupid, but he can’t help it.

The nervousness, it turns out, is warranted — just not for the reason he expected.

The evening goes well. It’s nice. Karen and Curt hit it off, and the Rangers win the game, and Frank manages to hide how gone he is on Karen from her once again. It becomes a semi-regular thing they do, the three of them watching hockey or baseball games piled on each other’s couches. They drink beer and make fun of the commentators and he and Curt, both staunch Rangers fans, tease Karen mercilessly for rooting for the Bruins.

Maybe a social life isn’t such a bad thing to have.

* * *

Then he notices that Karen and Curt are spending an awful lot of time whispering whenever he leaves the room, their conversations cutting off as soon as he returns. Whenever he hangs out with one or the other of them, they’re always texting each other. He tries not to be nosy, but he can’t help it when he’s around Karen. He notices everything about her. He can’t stop himself from watching her, from wanting to close the space between them. He thinks he has time to figure this out, to carefully test the waters and find out if she feels the same way.

* * *

He decides he’s glad she and Curt are friends, because where would he be if the people he cares about most couldn’t stand each other?

* * *

He takes too long.

It’s hockey night, and they show up together, and he opens his door to the sight of Curt with his arm around Karen. They’re both smiling, but there’s a slightly-forced quality about it, like they’re nervous about his reaction. He stares for a breathless, horrified moment, and then he pastes a smile on his face because he’s happy for them. Really, he is, he should be, he’s _trying_. The two best people in his life deserve happiness, deserve the best of everything — so why wouldn’t that mean each other?

He tries not to feel betrayed. It’s stupid to feel betrayed, even though Curt _knows_ how he feels about Karen... doesn’t he? He thinks about it, and maybe he doesn’t. It’s not like Frank has ever said the words out loud, to anyone. He’s never been accused of subtlety, but maybe he’s been trying so hard to hide his feelings from Karen that he actually succeeded in hiding them from everyone.

* * *

Hockey nights become excruciating. They keep it PG, but he notices little things. How they sit closer together, and how their teasing has turned the subtle corner into flirting, and it makes Frank want to put his fist through the wall. They hold hands when they think he can’t see, and the whispering when he’s out of the room intensifies to the point where he sometimes doesn’t want to return. Neither of them tells him what’s happening, but he can see it. He can’t _not_ see it, and it’s killing him. And the worst part is, he did this to himself.

* * *

He’s in a diner with Karen and she’s texting Curt, as usual. He can always tell by the way she won’t put her phone down, and the secretive smile she wears. He’d kill for that smile to be about him. She spills ketchup on her shirt and excuses herself to run to the bathroom and try to get the stain out before it sets, and she leaves her phone on the table. Unlocked. With her message thread with Curt pulled up.

He doesn’t mean to look, but he glances down and his eye catches on one of the messages and then he’s reading everything he can see on the screen.

Curtis [7:09pm] What are you up to?

Karen [7:10pm] Out with Frank

Curtis [7:10pm] How’s the competition? 😉

Karen [7:10pm] 🙄 there’s no competition

Curtis [7:10pm] lol

Karen [7:17pm] I hate this, we should tell him

Curtis [7:18pm] If you think it’s for the best...

Karen [7:20pm] You think he’ll be mad?

Curtis [7:24pm] I honestly wish he’d just deck me and get it over with.

Frank’s whole body flushes, embarrassment and horror warring for dominance. They know, they’ve known all along. His feelings aren’t a secret, but an awkward flag he’s been waving in their faces. He glances around but he’s not really seeing anything. In a panic he gets up. He throws some money on the table, looks for Karen and breathes a sigh of relief because she’s still in the bathroom.

And he leaves.

* * *

Karen calls him, and he doesn’t pick up. Curt calls next, and he turns off his phone. He can’t talk to them, not right now. He’s too busy feeling ashamed and devastated. He walks for a long time, and when he finally looks up he’s in Francis Lewis Park and it’s full dark. The place is deserted, and it’s as good a spot as any to have an emotional crisis.

He drops onto one of the benches and puts his head in his hands.

He can’t even be mad at them, not really. They deserve anything that makes them happy, and he won’t get in the way of it, no matter how miserable it makes him. He just wishes they’d told him. He wishes he wasn’t so obvious so they wouldn’t have felt the need to keep it a secret. It all feels so much worse, knowing they had to hide to protect his feelings. _No competition_ , she’d said, and he wants to be angry but she’s right. He could never compete with Curt, he doesn’t even want to try.

That’s a lie. He wants to try, for Karen. He’d do anything for her. But he can’t ask her to break Curt’s heart.

He’s so fucked.

* * *

He goes home late, and doesn’t turn his phone on until morning. He has a bunch of texts and missed calls and voicemails from both of them. He doesn’t read or listen to any of them.

He ignores them for days. Struggles to get his shit together. He has to get his shit together, because he loves them both. He can’t lose them over this. Somehow he has to get over Karen. Somehow he has to be able to watch them be happy together.

They don’t stop trying to reach him. He wakes up one morning to a text from Karen. All it says is _Frank, please_.

For Karen, he’ll do anything. Including being happy for her when she’s with his best friend.

* * *

When their next hockey night rolls around, he thinks he’s ready. It’s Karen’s turn to host, so he gets a six pack of her favorite beer and shows up on time. It nearly kills him to knock on her door, but he manages.

She answers the door, and looks shocked to find him standing there, which makes him feel ashamed all over again. They didn’t deserve his behavior of the last week.

“Frank,” she says, voice a little faint, and he can’t look at her.

“Can I come in?”

Karen nods, and lets him in. Curt hasn’t arrived yet, and maybe that’s good. He thinks it’ll be easier to apologize to her without an audience. He sets the beer on her counter and doesn’t turn around when she speaks.

“Frank—“

He cuts her off. “I’m sorry, Karen. I shouldn’t have disappeared like that.” He takes a deep breath, and turns around, but he still can’t look at her. He doesn’t want to see the pity in her eyes. “You didn’t deserve that. And I want you to know, if Curt makes you happy, that’s all that matters to me. You both deserve it and I won’t do anything to get in the way.”

“Frank—“

“If he breaks your heart, I’ll have to kill him,” he continues, scowling at the floor. “And if you break his heart, same deal, so if you better be serious about him.” He never thought he’d be giving the shovel talk to Karen.

“Frank—“ she sounds increasingly desperate for his attention, but if he doesn’t get it all out now he’ll never be able to say it.

“I can’t lose you,” he says, and he knows his voice is raw and he’s being too honest but he doesn’t stop. “I can’t lose either of you.” He finally looks up at her. “I just want you to be happy.”

She looks miserable. “We’re not dating.”

He blinks. “But you want to?” It’s not really a question.

“No.”

Now he’s really confused.

“We’ve never dated, we don’t think of each other like that,” she says.

“But—“

“I was trying to make you jealous!”

He stares at her. None of this makes any sense. The inside of his head is blank except for a little blue wheel and the word _buffering_.

“I know how you feel about me, I always have,” Karen says, and he feels a little ill. “At first I ignored it because of Matt, but when we broke up, I hoped you’d make a move.” She takes a deep breath, runs her fingers through her hair like she always does when she’s upset. “Only you never did. At first I thought you were just waiting for me to get over the breakup, but there wasn’t that much to get over, and it was looking like you were going to make me wait for you forever. So when Curtis and I became friends, I came up with this idea to make you jealous so you’d make a move, only it’s all gone wrong. He told me it wouldn’t work, but I told him we should at least try. Turns out he was right.”

He can’t believe what she’s saying, because then he’d have hope. So he argues with her.

“You told him there was no competition.”

Understanding washes over her face like daybreak. “You saw our texts.”

He nods, unable to speak.

“I wondered why you left,” she says. “Frank. There is no competition, because I don’t want to be with anyone but you. That’s what I meant. Curtis was just joking with me, he knows how I feel about you.”

“How do you feel about me?” He needs to hear her say it before he’ll let himself hope.

She smiles softly and closes the distance between them, and he trembles when she cups his face in her hands. He looks at her, trying to memorize every detail. “I love you, Frank Castle,” she says. “I spend all my time trying not to notice everything about you, and when you’re not around I’m miserable, and if you don’t kiss me soon I’m going to die.”

He doesn’t need to be told twice.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok I tagged this crack because I do not for one second believe Karen would actually think this was a good idea. She just wouldn’t.
> 
> But I wrote it anyway so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
